


RodimusRox

by Lush_Specimen



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Rodimags Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 08:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21051344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lush_Specimen/pseuds/Lush_Specimen
Summary: Ultra Magnus lost his personal datapad, containing all his deepest secrets. He had looked everywhere, twice, but still couldn’t find it. Somewhere on this ship full of mischievous misfits, miscreants, and rabble rousers, his personal writings must have fallen into the wrong hands.Noticing his distress, Rodimus swoops to the rescue in the way he knows best, with music and dancing.The adorable fic I wrote for Tempered Steel, the Rodimags zine!





	RodimusRox

Ultra Magnus leaned heavy on Swerve’s bar, head propped up with one hand, the other tapping on his room temperature energon spritzer. Watching the bubbles burst on the drink’s surface, he ruminated on all the horrific ways his life could have ended over the years: an assassin’s bullet, a heavy artillery barrage, hell, even friendly fire. He shook his head and sighed. Unfortunately, reality is far crueler. 

He lost his personal datapad, containing all his deepest secrets. Ultra Magnus had looked everywhere, twice, but still couldn’t find it. Somewhere on this ship full of mischievous misfits, miscreants, and rabble rousers, his personal writings must have fallen into the wrong hands. 

The undersized bar stool creaked in protest when he shifted his weight to lean both elbows on the counter. Where had he gone wrong? 

This is all Rung’s fault. He’s the one that suggested that Ultra Magnus start writing. Finally acquiescing to Rodimus’ constant pestering, Ultra Magnus had gone to talk to Rung about his feelings regarding his armor. He struggled after the rest of the crew discovered his true identity as Minimus Ambus. Although he tried to hide it, Rodimus had noticed his distress and wouldn’t let him off the hook. 

He awkwardly stumbled through the first two sessions. By the third he confessed the thought of setting the armor aside simultaneously thrilled and terrified him. Then Rung made the suggestion that would lead to his ultimate demise: start keeping a journal. Of course, Ultra Magnus refused. Ultra Magnus does not deal with feelings, but Rung would not be deterred. He then proposed that Ultra Magnus write a fictional story, create a new character, one who was dealing with the same type of issues. 

Already inspired by listening to Megatron’s poetry, Ultra Magnus found this idea intriguing and embraced it whole-heartedly. And thus, Sprinklor was born. Tiny Sprinklor had an alt mode of a fire extinguisher but wore the armor of a massive fire truck. As second in command of the starship Last Knight, it was his responsibility to protect his crew and his captain. 

Ultra Magnus buried his face in both hands. No. It wasn’t fair to blame Rung. This whole situation was all his fault. If only he could recall where he left the datapad when he rushed out of Swerve’s several hours early. He began running through the day’s events in his head for the millionth time. 

He brought the datapad with him to Swerve’s this morning and settled into the corner booth currently occupied by Skids and Riptide. Sprinklor has gotten into a tough situation and Ultra Magnus was looking forward to writing his way out of this dilemma. A ruthless bounty hunter had captured Sprinklor’s handsome charismatic co-captain, Rodi. Unwilling to abandon his one true friend to torment and death, Sprinklor came up with a brilliant rescue plan. There was only one catch. The plan hinged on him sneaking behind enemy lines in his irreducible form. He would have to reveal his true self to the rest of the crew, including the new co-captain Megatonn, whom Sprinklor found both intriguing and infuriating. Would they accept him without his armor? Would they ridicule him? 

The thought of Sprinklor’s beloved crew laughing at his true identity snapped Ultra Magnus back to reality. He sighed from the depth of his spark. Pouring so much of himself into Sprinklor provided such a cathartic release but it also made it fairly easy to discern the author. 

He had just started blocking out this crucial chapter when an explosion echoed down the hall. Ultra Magnus rushed to investigate. Finding Whirl at ground zero did not surprise him. The helicopter nicked a device that Brainstorm claimed could blow up half the ship and then detonated it in the central corridor in an attempt to determine which half. 

Before he could drag Whirl off to the brig, a series of loud bangs rattled the adjacent room. A quick detour put an end to Huffer and Brawn’s latest game of hand grenade tag. As he confiscated their munitions for the third time, a terrible screeching sounded on the deck above. 

Huffer and Brawn slipped away when he ran up the stairs to find the source of the screams. What sounded like a pack of turbo foxes viciously tearing each other to pieces, turned out to be Cyclonus teaching a singing class in old Cybertronian. He and Tailgate had an entire choir cheerily belting out “Glory to Cybertron Glinting in the Heavens.” 

Leaving them to their singing, with a strict admonition to lower the volume, Ultra Magnus headed to the medibay to respond to another distress signal. Drift and Ratchet were trapped in the supply closet... again. Drift looked so disappointed when Ultra Magnus opened the door that he began to suspect that he was sabotaging the lock on purpose. 

By the time Ultra Magnus finally returned to Swerve’s to realize his datapad was missing, he’d been up and down the entire ship several times, efficiently handling one disaster after another. He could have dropped his datapad anywhere and frantically retraced his steps to no avail. Giving up his unfruitful search, he stumbled back to the bar and ordered a weak energon spritzer to drown his sorrows. 

“Hey Mags! What’s shakin’?” Rodimus sauntered in and leaned back against the bar. 

Ultra Magnus shuddered and slumped even lower. He couldn’t bear to look into Rodimus’ electric blue optics and thousand watt smile right now. It was like staring at the sun. Besides, Rodimus would instantly know something was bothering him. 

“Excuse me, sirs!” Riptide cheerily pushed between them to pick up two drinks. He bounced back into the booth he shared with Skids and yelped. “Ow! I just sat on something!” 

“Hey!” Skids reached under Riptide. “It looks like a datapad! Let’s see what’s on it!” 

Ultra Magnus shivered and every circuit in his body locked up. His head hit the bar with a whimper. It was here the whole time! Why didn’t he think to look under the table? He should just go over there and take it back. After all, Megatron isn’t ashamed of anything he writes. But he couldn’t move. 

“Mags?” Rodimus tapped his shoulder. “Are you okay?” 

“The Chronicles of Sprinklor.” Skids read aloud. 

“Awesome! Is it a story? I love stories! Read it to me!” Riptide took a gulp of his drink and leaned forward. 

“Someone put a lot of work into this. Maybe if we read it, we can figure out who wrote it!” 

“And we can publish it in the Lost Light Insider! Call Nautica! She’d love to hear it too!” 

The Lost Light Insider?! Ultra Magnus choked down a pathetic squeak. This is how his life ends, with a tabloid exposé. He couldn’t even muster the strength to run away. A loud clatter shocked him out of his anguish. 

“Rodimus! Get off of the table!” Swerve yelled. 

“No way!” Rodimus pirouetted on the table top with a radiant grin. “Toss me a bottle of Nightmare Fuel and play something fun! I feel like dancing!” 

Swerve whipped a bottle towards Rodimus which he effortlessly plucked out of the air. All optics were on Rodimus as he pranced along over several table tops to the quirky beat of LMFAO's “I’m Sexy and I Know It,” until he stopped on the table between Riptide and Skids. He offered them the bottle with a devastating smile. “Come on! I don’t wanna dance alone!” 

Riptide blushed and Skids burst into laughter. They both took a swig of Nightmare Fuel and, despite Swerve’s protests, joined Rodimus up on the table. As they danced through the first “wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle yeah,” the table toppled over, tossing them into a giggling heap on the floor. Somehow, Rodimus even made falling look graceful. 

While Rodimus made a great spectacle of helping his dance partners to their feet, Ultra Magnus took advantage of the commotion and slipped out of the bar. Berating himself for not retrieving his datapad, he leaned back against the wall around the corner and slumped to the floor. The muffled music reverberated down the hall, and Ultra Magnus made a mental note to speak to Swerve about increasing his soundproofing. 

“Hey, Mags! Think fast!” 

Ultra Magnus looked up to see Rodimus bounding towards him at full speed. He leapt into the air at the last second and Ultra Magnus easily caught him. 

“Rodimus,” Ultra Magnus chided. “What did I tell you about throwing yourself at people?” 

“That someone could get hurt,” Rodimus groaned. He wriggled around, nestling himself comfortably into Ultra Magnus’ lap. “But you never miss!” 

“I thought you were in the mood for dancing.” 

“Oh that? Nah! You looked like you could use a distraction, and I can be very distracting.” 

Ultra Magnus startled. Rodimus had intentionally provided him with the perfect escape! 

“But what about Skids and Riptide?” 

“Pfft! Between my awesome dance moves and the Nightmare Fuel, they’ll be lucky if they remember their own names. Which reminds me,” Rodimus handed Ultra Magnus the datapad. “I believe this belongs to you.” 

“How-?” Ultra Magnus gratefully accepted his lost writings and stared at the vibrant speedster snuggled in his arms beaming up at him with a smile that could illumine the darkest corners of the universe. “How did you even know it was mine?” 

“Please, Mags!” Rodimus winked. “I could tell something was really bothering you and it got exponentially worse when Riptide found that datapad. You don’t have to be ashamed of having a literary hobby, but if you don’t want to share your writing, that’s okay too.” 

“Th-Thank you. I never thought I’d find it. I looked everywhere.” 

“Next time, I’ll help you look. I’m great at finding stuff, just ask the Knights of Cybertron! Let me show you the best part! I added some security features in case it ever gets lost again.” 

Ultra Magnus flipped open the datapad to reveal the new lock screen, a selfie Rodimus took of himself dancing, colored lights shimmering on his metal-flake paint work. He always manages to capture his good side. 

“This way, if anyone finds it, they’ll probably just assume it’s mine! When they give it to me, I’ll return it to you. I added a password too! Boop my nose to unlock the screen,” Rodimus tapped his picture to illustrate. “Then enter the password RodimusRox, one word, both R’s capital, rocks spelled with an x.” 

“With an x?!” Ultra Magnus bellowed, his armor twitched at the flippant spelling. 

Rodimus scrunched his face and snickered. “I knew you’d love it!” 

“I definitely won’t forget it,” Ultra Magnus sighed. 

Rolling off of Ultra Magnus, Rodimus landed lightly on his feet. “You work so hard to protect my ship and save my crew, mostly from themselves. This whole quest was my idea, but I could never pull it off alone. I couldn’t do it without you.” He dimmed his optics. “I just wanted a chance to protect you for a change. Even in some small way.” 

“It may seem small to you, but this is very important to me.” Ultra Magnus hesitated. He knew what he wanted to do, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Thinking back to his story, Sprinklor might encounter a similar situation when he finally rescues Rodi. Perhaps if he considers this as research... “Rodimus, would you like a hug?” 

Rodimus’ optics brightened and sparks danced along his spoiler. “Would I ever!” 

Ultra Magnus pulled Rodimus into a warm embrace. “Thank you so much for protecting me today.” 

Rodimus’ engine purred with delight as Magnus gently held him. It tickled and, to his complete surprise, a slight smile spread across Ultra Magnus’ face. He would have to thank Rung sometime. Taking up writing fiction actually has helped more than he ever would have dreamed. Although he started today thinking his life was over, now with Rodimus cuddled against his chest, he felt like maybe it’s just beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you for reading!
> 
> I appreciate your kudos and love reading your comments!!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at: [lush-specimen.tumblr.com](https://lush-specimen.tumblr.com)


End file.
